JP2006322832A - Communication terminal, contour information management server, information provision system, and information provision method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a communication terminal, a contour information management server, an information provision system, and an information provision method, for easily identifying a physical object even without using any instrument for measuring a direction in which the communication terminal faces. <P>SOLUTION: A contour information acquisition part 211 of a contour information management server 20 selects a landmark corresponding to positional information of a terminal 10 to acquire selected contour information from a landmark database 23. A contour information correction part 212 corrects the contour information while a contour information transmission part 213 transmits corrected contour information to the terminal 10. A contour information acquisition part 111 of the terminal 10 receives the contour information on the landmark while a superposition display part 112 superposingly displays the contour of the landmark on a live image being taken by a camera 12. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a communication terminal that provides information depending on position and direction, a contour information management server, an information providing system, and an information providing method.

  Conventionally, there is a service for distributing information depending on the position of a communication terminal to the terminal (for example, see Patent Document 1). According to the technique described in Patent Document 1, the terminal is connected to a real image input from a TV camera, such as a road or a building corresponding to the position of the terminal received by a GPS (Global Positioning System) antenna. Display information superimposed. Here, since the terminal acquires the related information based only on the position of the terminal itself, there is a possibility that the actual video and the related information may be superimposed and displayed depending on the direction in which the TV camera is facing. is there.

  In order to solve such problems, in recent years, information providing systems that distribute information depending on the orientation, elevation angle, and depression angle (hereinafter collectively referred to as “direction”) in addition to the position of the terminal have been studied. ing. In such an information providing system, even if the peripheral information is distributed to the terminal, the user has to take a correspondence between the actual object and the distributed information for his / her own sense.

In order to improve the accuracy of specifying an object, there is a method in which an electronic compass using a geomagnetic sensor is mounted on the terminal and the azimuth angle of the terminal is adjusted based on information from the sensor.
In the technology described in Patent Document 2, the azimuth angle, elevation angle, and depression angle are detected by a terminal equipped with a geomagnetic sensor, and information on the constellation in that direction is displayed on the terminal so that the user can grasp the constellation. Is possible.
JP 09-297532 A JP 2004-13066 A

  However, a terminal that does not have an electronic compass cannot know the azimuth angle. Even if the terminal has an electronic compass, it is difficult to accurately define the azimuth angle, elevation angle, and depression angle unless the accuracy of the sensor is very high. If the accuracy is not high, the object to be seen is different depending on the user, and necessary information and the object may be different. For this reason, if a device that measures the direction the terminal is facing, such as an electronic compass with high measurement accuracy, is not installed in the terminal, services such as constellation guidance that require operation of the terminal according to the coordinates of the space It was difficult to provide.

Even if the direction can be accurately determined, if there are a plurality of objects in the same direction and the user has insufficient knowledge of the object, the object that is actually seen is specified. It was difficult.
The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and a communication terminal and contour information that can easily identify an object without using a device that measures a direction in which the communication terminal faces. It is an object to provide a management server, an information providing system, and an information providing method.

  In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the invention according to claim 1 is a communication terminal having a camera function, wherein the contour information acquisition means for acquiring the contour information of the object according to the position information of the terminal, and the contour A superimposing display unit that superimposes and displays the contour of the object on the actual image captured by the camera function based on the contour information of the object acquired by the information acquisition unit; Provided is a communication terminal characterized in that its own terminal is directed in a prescribed direction by moving the own terminal so that the contour of an object displayed in a superimposed manner matches the contour of a real image.

According to this configuration, since the communication terminal can superimpose and display the contour of the target object on the actual video imaged by the camera function, without using a device that measures the direction in which the communication terminal is facing, The object can be easily identified by a simple operation of moving the communication terminal so that the outline of the object superimposed and displayed on the communication terminal matches the outline of the actual video.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the communication terminal according to the first aspect, the degree of coincidence determination means for determining the degree of coincidence between the contour of the object superimposed and displayed by the superimposed display means and the contour of the actual video The apparatus further comprises a coincidence notifying unit for notifying the user when the degree of coincidence determined by the coincidence degree determining unit is higher than a predetermined value.
According to this configuration, since the user can receive a notification that the contours match, the object can be easily specified.

The invention according to claim 3 selects the object corresponding to the position information of the communication terminal and the outline information storage means for storing the position information of the object and the outline information of the object in association with each other, and selects the object The contour information acquired by the contour information acquisition unit so that the contour information acquisition unit acquires the contour information of the target object from the contour information storage unit and the contour of the target object viewed from the communication terminal. There is provided an outline information management server comprising outline information correcting means for correcting and outline information transmitting means for transmitting outline information corrected by the outline information correcting means to the communication terminal.
According to this configuration, the contour information management server acquires the contour information of the target object according to the position information of the communication terminal, and corrects the contour information so that the contour of the target object viewed from the communication terminal can be displayed. Since it transmits to a communication terminal, the user of a communication terminal can specify a target object easily using the outline of the target object displayed on the communication terminal.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the contour information management server according to the third aspect, the contour information correcting means has a contour whose size according to the distance between the communication terminal and the object is the communication. The contour information is corrected so as to be displayed on a terminal.
According to this configuration, a contour having a size corresponding to the distance between the communication terminal and the object can be displayed on the communication terminal, so that the user can easily identify the object.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the contour information management server according to the third or fourth aspect, the contour information correcting unit includes the plurality of objects selected by the contour information acquiring unit. The contour information is corrected so that a contour obtained by overlaying the plurality of objects is displayed on the communication terminal according to a positional relationship between the communication terminal and the plurality of objects.
According to this configuration, it is possible to display an outline in which a plurality of objects are overlapped on the communication terminal according to the positional relationship between the communication terminal and the plurality of objects, so that the user can easily identify the object.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the contour information management server according to any one of the third to fifth aspects, the additional information storage means for storing additional information of the object and the position information of the communication terminal Additional information acquisition means for acquiring additional information of the target object from the additional information storage means, and the contour information transmission means includes the additional information together with the contour information of the target object acquired by the contour information acquisition means. The additional information of the object acquired by the acquisition unit is transmitted to the communication terminal.
According to this configuration, the contour information management server can distribute the additional information together with the contour information of the object to the communication terminal, so that the user can obtain information about the identified object at the same time.

  The invention according to claim 7 is an information providing system including an outline information management server that manages outline information of an object and a communication terminal having a camera function, wherein the outline information management server includes position information of the object, Contour information storage means for storing the contour information of the target object in association with each other, contour information for selecting the target object according to the positional information of the communication terminal, and acquiring the selected contour information from the contour information storage means An outline information transmitting means for transmitting the outline information acquired by the outline information acquisition means to the communication terminal, wherein the communication terminal receives the outline information of the object from the outline information management server; Based on the information acquisition means and the outline information of the object received by the outline information acquisition means, the outline of the object is superimposed and displayed on the actual image captured by the camera function. Superimposing display means, and moving the communication terminal so that the contour of the object superimposed and displayed by the superimposition display means coincides with the contour of the actual video, thereby moving the communication terminal in a specified direction. An information providing system characterized by being directed is provided.

  According to this configuration, the contour information management server transmits contour information corresponding to the position information of the communication terminal to the communication terminal, and the communication terminal superimposes the contour of the object on the actual video imaged by the camera function. Therefore, by moving the communication terminal so that the contour of the superimposed object and the contour of the actual video coincide with each other, the communication terminal can be directed in a specified direction. Even without using a device that measures the direction of the object, it is possible to easily identify the object with a simple operation.

  According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, in the information providing method for providing information dependent on position and direction to a communication terminal having a camera function, the contour information management server that manages contour information of an object is the communication terminal. A contour information acquisition step of selecting a target object according to the position information of the selected target object and acquiring contour information of the selected target object, and the contour information management server corrects the contour information acquired in the contour information acquisition step. A contour information correcting step; a contour information transmitting step in which the contour information management server transmits the contour information corrected in the contour information correcting step to the communication terminal; and the communication terminal is transmitted in the contour information transmitting step. Based on the contour information of the target object, a superimposition table that superimposes and displays the contour of the target object on the actual image captured by the camera function An information providing method comprising: a step of matching, and a step of determining a degree of coincidence between a contour of an object superimposed and displayed in the superimposed display step and a contour of a real image. provide.

  According to this method, the contour information management server selects and corrects the contour information according to the position information of the communication terminal, transmits the contour information to the communication terminal, and the communication terminal adds the object to the real image captured by the camera function. The user can easily determine whether or not the communication terminal is oriented in a specified direction because the contour of the object is superimposed and displayed, and the degree of coincidence between the contour of the target object and the contour of the actual video is determined. It becomes possible to easily identify the object.

  As described above, since the communication terminal can superimpose and display the outline of the target object on the actual image captured by the camera function, without using a device that measures the direction in which the communication terminal is facing, The object can be easily identified by a simple operation of moving the communication terminal so that the outline of the object superimposed and displayed on the communication terminal matches the outline of the actual video.

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
[1. Constitution]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of an information providing system according to the present invention. As shown in the figure, in the information providing system according to the present invention, the terminal 10 possessed by the user, the contour information management server 20 and the position information management server 30 are communicably connected via a network 40. . Hereinafter, the configuration of each apparatus will be described.

[1.1. Configuration of location information management server]
The location information management server 30 is a device that manages location information of the terminal 10, and includes a control device 31, a line control device 32, and a location information database 33. The position information database 33 manages position information acquired from a GPS function mounted on the terminal 10. Here, the position information includes latitude and longitude. Note that the location information may include altitude. Further, when the terminal 10 is a mobile communication terminal, the location information management server 30 may manage information on a base station where the terminal 10 is located as location information. The control device 31 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) and a program, and controls the entire position information management server 30. The control device 31 acquires position information from the position information database 33 and responds to the inquiry about the position information of the terminal 10 from the contour information server 20. The line control device 32 controls communication with the terminal 10 and the contour information management server 20 via the network 40.

[1.2. Configuration of contour information server]
The contour information management server 20 is a device that manages the contour (shape) of an object such as a landmark, and includes a control device 21, a line control device 22, and a landmark database 23.
The landmark database 23 is a database provided in a storage device such as a hard disk, and corresponds to contour information storage means and additional information storage means. FIG. 2 shows an example of the data structure of the landmark database 23. As shown in the figure, in the landmark database 23, position information indicating the position (latitude, longitude, etc.) of the landmark and outline information indicating the outline of the landmark are stored in association with each other. Further, the landmark database 23 stores additional information indicating the name of the landmark. In addition to the name of the landmark, the additional information may include various information about the landmark (landmark explanation, route guidance, address, telephone number, advertisement, etc.).

The line control device 22 controls communication with the location information management server 30 and the terminal 10 via the network 40.
The control device 21 includes a CPU and a program, and controls the contour information management server 20 as a whole. The function of the control device 21 will be described in more detail. The control device 21 has the functional configuration shown in FIG.
The contour information acquisition unit 211 refers to the landmark database 23, selects a landmark that can be seen from the terminal 10 according to the position information of the terminal 10, and acquires the contour information of the selected landmark from the landmark database 23. .

The contour information correction unit 212 corrects the contour information acquired by the contour information acquisition unit 211 so that the landmark contour viewed from the terminal 10 can be displayed on the terminal 10. Specifically, the contour information correction unit 212 corrects the contour information so that a contour having a size corresponding to the distance between the terminal 10 and the landmark is displayed on the terminal 10. In addition, when the contour information acquisition unit 211 selects a plurality of landmarks, the contour information correction unit 212 has an outline in which a plurality of landmarks are overlapped according to the positional relationship between the terminal 10 and the plurality of landmarks. The contour information is corrected so as to be displayed on the terminal 10.
The contour information transmission unit 213 transmits the corrected contour information to the terminal 10.
The additional information acquisition unit 214 acquires additional information of landmarks from the landmark database 23.
The position information acquisition unit 215 acquires the position information of the terminal 10 from the position information management server 30.

[1.3. Terminal configuration]
The terminal 10 is a communication terminal having a camera function and a GPS function, and corresponds to, for example, a mobile phone, a PHS (Personal Handyphone System), a PDA (Personal Digital Assistance), and the like. The terminal 10 includes a control device 11, a camera 12, and a display 13.
The camera 12 has a camera function for taking an image, and includes a lens and an image sensor. The video signal photographed by the camera is transferred to the control device 11 and the video is displayed on the display 13 in real time.

The display 13 displays an image based on a signal input from the control device 11.
The control device 11 includes a CPU and a program, and controls the entire terminal 10. The function of the control device 11 will be described in more detail. The control device 11 has the functional configuration shown in FIG.
The contour information acquisition unit 111 receives the contour information of the landmark according to the position information of the terminal 10 from the contour information management server 20.
Based on the landmark contour information received by the contour information acquisition unit 111, the superimposition display unit 112 superimposes the landmark contour on the real image captured in real time by the camera 12, and displays it on the display 13.

The coincidence determination unit 113 determines the coincidence between the contour of the target object and the contour of the actual video. The coincidence determination unit 113 determines that the contour of the target object matches the contour of the real image when the coincidence is a value higher than a predetermined value.
When the degree of coincidence determined by the degree of coincidence determining unit 113 is higher than a predetermined value, the coincidence notifying unit 114 outputs predetermined information and sound to match the contour. The user is notified of the fact (or the matching degree).
The position information acquisition unit 115 acquires the position information of the terminal 10 by the GPS function installed in the terminal 10.

[2. Operation]
Next, with reference to a sequence diagram shown in FIG. 5, an operation example when the contour information of the landmark is transmitted from the contour information management server 20 to the terminal 10 will be described.
First, the terminal 10 transmits a connection request to the contour information management server 20 (step S201). At the same time, the terminal 10 transmits the position information of the terminal 10 acquired by the position information acquisition unit 115 to the position information management server 30 (step S202).
The position information acquisition unit 215 of the contour information management server 20 that has received the connection request from the terminal 10 makes an inquiry about the position information of the terminal 10 to the position information management server 30, and acquires the position information of the terminal 10 (steps S203 to S205). .

  The contour information acquisition unit 211 of the contour information management server 20 refers to the landmark database 23, selects a landmark that can be seen from the point based on the position information of the terminal 10, and acquires the contour information of the selected landmark. (Step S206). Further, the additional information acquisition unit 214 acquires additional information of the selected landmark from the landmark database 23.

  The contour information correcting unit 212 corrects the landmark contour information acquired by the contour information acquiring unit 211 so that the contour of the landmark viewed from the terminal 10 can be displayed on the terminal 10 (step S207). Specifically, when a plurality of landmarks are selected, the contour information correction unit 212 corrects the contour information in consideration of the overlap between the landmarks. In addition, the contour information correction unit 212 corrects the contour information so that a contour having a size corresponding to the distance between the terminal 10 and the landmark is displayed.

After correcting the contour information, the contour information transmitting unit 213 transmits the contour information and additional information to the terminal 10 (step S208).
The terminal 10 that has received the contour information by the contour information acquisition unit 111 displays the real image captured by the camera 12 on the display 13 in real time. At the same time, the superimposing display unit 112 superimposes the contour of the landmark on the actual video based on the received contour information and displays it on the display 13 (step S209).
The coincidence determination unit 113 determines the coincidence by calculating the coincidence between the contour of the real image captured by the camera and the contour of the landmark (step S210). When it is determined that the degree of coincidence is higher than a predetermined value and the contours coincide, the coincidence notifying unit 114 notifies the user of the coincidence by outputting sound or displaying information on the display 13.

  FIG. 6 shows a display example of the actual image and the outline of the landmark displayed superimposed on the display 13. When the terminal 10 exists in a place where the two buildings 301 and 302 can be seen, and the two buildings 301 and 302 are selected as landmarks in the place, the contour information correction unit 212 of the contour information management server 20 Considering the positional relationship of the landmarks that can be seen from the location of the terminal 10, the acquired contour information is corrected to contour information obtained by superimposing a plurality of landmarks. As a result, the outline 303 is displayed on the display 13 of the terminal 10.

By moving the terminal 10 (changing the position and orientation of the terminal 10), the user superimposes the contour 303 displayed on the display and the images of the two buildings 301 and 302 actually captured by the camera 12. As a result, the terminal 10 can be directed in a prescribed direction.
In the embodiment described above, the case where the contour information of a landmark such as a building is used as the contour information has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to the landmark, and contour information of various objects can be used. For example, the contour information of the constellation is used as the contour information, and the shape of a certain constellation is displayed on the display 13 of the terminal 10 as shown in FIG.

In the above-described embodiment, the terminal 10 has been described as acquiring the contour information of the target object from the contour information management server 20, but for example, the contour information is stored in the memory included in the terminal 10, and You may acquire the outline information of the target object according to the positional information on the terminal 10.
As described above, the location and name of the landmark visible from the place are displayed on the terminal 10 using the position information of the terminal 10 possessed by the user, and the terminal is configured so that the user matches the landmark contour with the real image. By changing the direction of 10, the direction in which the terminal 10 is facing can be adjusted to a specified direction including the elevation angle and the depression angle by a simple operation. Further, by distributing additional information to the terminal 10 simultaneously with the contour information, various information can be provided in correspondence with the object with high accuracy.

  Thus, since the terminal 10 can superimpose and display the contour of the target object on the real image captured by the camera 12, the contour of the target object superimposed on the terminal 10 and the contour of the real image are displayed. By adjusting the orientation of the terminal 10 so as to match, it is possible to easily identify the object with a simple operation without using an apparatus such as an electronic compass that measures the direction in which the terminal 10 is facing. .

  Since the present invention can adjust the direction easily and accurately by using a communication terminal equipped with a camera function without using a device for measuring the direction, it provides highly accurate information depending on the position and direction. Can be used for services.

1 is a diagram illustrating an overall configuration of an information providing system according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the data structure of the landmark database which concerns on the embodiment. It is a figure which shows the function structure of the control apparatus with which the outline information management server which concerns on the embodiment is provided. It is a figure which shows the function structure of the control apparatus with which the terminal which concerns on the embodiment is provided. It is a sequence diagram which shows operation | movement at the time of transmitting the outline information of a landmark from the outline information management server which concerns on the embodiment to a terminal. It is a display example of the outline of a landmark and a real image according to the embodiment. It is an example of a display of the outline of a constellation and a real picture concerning the embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Terminal 11 Control apparatus 111 Contour information acquisition part 112 Superimposition display part 113 Match degree determination part 114 Match notification part 115 Position information acquisition part 12 Camera 13 Display 20 Contour information management server 21 Control apparatus 211 Contour information acquisition part 212 Contour information correction part 213 Outline information transmission unit 214 Additional information acquisition unit 215 Location information acquisition unit 22 Line control device 23 Landmark database 30 Location information management server 31 Control device 32 Line control device 33 Location information database 40 Network 301, 302 Building image 303 Outline

Claims (8)

In communication terminals with camera functions,
Contour information acquisition means for acquiring the contour information of the object according to the position information of the terminal;
Based on the outline information of the object acquired by the outline information acquisition means, and a superimposing display means for superimposing and displaying the outline of the object on the actual image captured by the camera function,
A communication terminal characterized in that the terminal is directed in a prescribed direction by moving the terminal so that the contour of the object superimposed and displayed by the superimposed display means matches the contour of the actual video. A degree of coincidence determination means for determining the degree of coincidence between the contour of the object superimposed and displayed by the superimposed display means and the contour of the actual video;
2. The communication terminal according to claim 1, further comprising: a coincidence notifying unit that notifies a user when the degree of coincidence determined by the coincidence degree determining unit is higher than a predetermined value. Contour information storage means for storing the positional information of the object and the contour information of the object in association with each other;
Contour information acquisition means for selecting an object according to the position information of the communication terminal and acquiring contour information of the selected object from the contour information storage means;
Contour information correcting means for correcting the contour information acquired by the contour information acquiring means so that the contour of the object viewed from the communication terminal can be displayed;
A contour information management server, comprising: contour information transmitting means for transmitting contour information corrected by the contour information correcting means to the communication terminal. The contour information correcting means includes
The contour information management according to claim 3, wherein the contour information is corrected so that a contour having a size corresponding to a distance between the communication terminal and the object is displayed on the communication terminal. server. The contour information correcting means includes
When there are a plurality of objects selected by the contour information acquisition unit, an outline of the plurality of objects superimposed on the communication terminal is displayed on the communication terminal according to the positional relationship between the communication terminal and the plurality of objects. The contour information management server according to claim 3, wherein the contour information is corrected. Additional information storage means for storing additional information of the object;
Additional information acquisition means for acquiring additional information of the object according to the position information of the communication terminal from the additional information storage means;
The contour information transmitting means includes
The additional information of the object acquired by the additional information acquisition unit is transmitted to the communication terminal together with the contour information of the object acquired by the contour information acquisition unit. The outline information management server according to claim 1. In an information providing system including an outline information management server for managing outline information of an object and a communication terminal having a camera function,
The contour information management server
Contour information storage means for storing the positional information of the object and the contour information of the object in association with each other;
A contour information acquisition unit that selects an object according to position information of the communication terminal and acquires the selected contour information from the contour information storage unit;
Contour information transmitting means for transmitting the contour information acquired by the contour information acquiring means to the communication terminal;
The communication terminal is
Contour information acquisition means for receiving contour information of an object from the contour information management server;
Based on the contour information of the object received by the contour information acquisition means, comprising superimposed display means for superimposing and displaying the contour of the object on the actual image captured by the camera function,
Information that directs the communication terminal in a specified direction by moving the communication terminal so that the contour of the object superimposed and displayed by the superimposing display means matches the contour of the actual video Offer system. In an information providing method for providing information dependent on position and direction to a communication terminal having a camera function,
The contour information management server that manages the contour information of the target object selects the target object according to the position information of the communication terminal, and acquires the contour information acquisition step of acquiring the contour information of the selected target object;
A contour information correcting step in which the contour information management server corrects the contour information acquired in the contour information acquiring step;
A contour information transmission step in which the contour information management server transmits the contour information corrected in the contour information correction step to the communication terminal;
The communication terminal, on the basis of the contour information of the target object transmitted in the contour information transmission step, a superimposed display step of superimposing and displaying the contour of the target object on the real video imaged by the camera function;
The information providing method comprising: a degree of coincidence determination step for determining a degree of coincidence between the contour of the object superimposed and displayed in the superimposed display step and the contour of the actual video.

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